The Ramsey Show - App - Don’t Believe the Lies, You CAN Become a Millionaire (Hour 3)

Episode Date: April 26, 2023

Dave Ramsey & George Kamel interview millionaires to find out how they built wealth! Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they actually love, and create real, amazing relationships. George Camel, Ramsey personality, host of the popular YouTube channel, George Camel, Camel with a K. Check it out. He is the king of snark.

You will love it. And he and Rachel Cruz do a wonderful afternoon show called Smart Money Happy Hour. Ding! Yeah, they might have a drink on the show. So you need to check them out. And they get rather funny after they drink. So check them out. Sharon Ramsey loves it.

And that's the only review you need, America. That's it. That's all you need to know. It tells you everything you need. Sharon listens to it. And she doesn't listen to this show. So we know that that's there. There's some hurt feelings to my left.

I think there's bitterness here, but it could be. Now, after 30 years, she's not impressed anymore. 30 years of being on the air and 40 years of marriage, she's not impressed at all. Takes a lot to impress Sharon. Yeah. We've managed to do it. Yeah, there you go. So check it out.

Smart Money Happy Hour. Hey, this is a Baby Steps Millionaires Theme Hour. What is that? That is where we talk to real millionaires. If you're a real millionaire, call in. Let me help you with what a millionaire is, because some people don't know, including a congressman I heard speaking the other day who was an idiot. So a millionaire is not someone that makes a million dollars a year, Mr. Congressman, Mrs. Congressman, you were wrong. A millionaire is someone who has a million dollar net worth

that is different than your income. Your net worth is what you own minus what you owe. Assets minus liabilities equals net worth. When that is greater than one million dollars, and what you own minus what you owe is greater than one million dollars, you are officially, by accounting definitions, a millionaire. Well, I don't feel like it's not a feeling. No one should have that much. It's not a moral construct. It's not enough. It's not a question of how much you need for retirement. It's a math thing. When you have a million-dollar net worth, you're a millionaire. That's all it is.

It's not, you know, we can answer and have those other discussions if you want to have them. Moral construct, is it enough, and all that kind of stuff. But it is a million-dollar net worth. So if you actually have a $1 million or greater net worth, we want to talk to you and find out how you got it because there's a lot of mythology floating around about wealthy people in America today. Let me say it another way. There's a lot of stupid lies that are told about wealthy people in America just by the uninformed, ignorant, and people with an agenda

trying to get you to vote the wrong way. And so there you go. Check us out if you're a millionaire. George and I want to talk to you. We want to learn how you did it. The phone number here is 888-825-5225. Sarah is in Cincinnati. Sarah, what's your net worth?

Good afternoon, sir. Very much an honor to speak with you, long-time listener. My net worth is $1.9 million. Very cool. Good for you. Give me a little breakdown on that. What's the categories that make up the $1.9? Okay, I have six buckets plus a retiree medical account.

My house, fully paid for house, $425,000. My bank checking and savings is currently at $250,000. I've got that amount in there. I know I'm at the FDIC limit. I have a Roth IRA at $232,371. Taxable brokerage, $268,026. An OPRS 403B retirement at 501 and the deferred comp that's also with my public employment at 190,862 and then my retiree medical count is at 85,000 i just checked all my numbers sunday and

that brings me to 1,945,000 check it again it's probably over two now. Way to go! Woo! Thank you. How old are you? I am 54 years old. Cool. And how much of this $1.9 million did you inherit? I actually inherited, after I hit my million-dollar mark in 2017, after an uncle I was caring for passed away, I inherited $213,000, a gift from him. Awesome.

That's very nice. But to be clear, you were already a millionaire. Yes, sir. So you did not become a millionaire with inherited money. Correct, sir. I just want to make sure everybody hears that loud and clear because that's one of the numbers we hear about all the time. Way to go. All right. So what do you do for a living?

I am a registered nurse in public health. I recently acquired my master's degree in May of 21. Okay. What was your GPA? Probably about a 3.4. Good for you. Okay. And your best working year, what did you make, and your worst working year since you've been working?

What's your lowest income and highest? Yes. Last year, because of mandated overtime, I was at $117,000. When I first started working as a nurse in 1991, my pay was $1,350 an hour. Prior to that, I worked as an aide, a nurse aide, at $550 an hour. Wow. So $1,350 an hour would be like $16,000 a year. Correct.

And now I'm at $46 an hour. Woo-wee. So most of this this time you've not even made a hundred thousand correct oh definitely definitely not but on 2020 21 and 22 i just cleared a hundred thousand because of mandated overtime but prior to that i was around 90 000 a year but really over the last 20 years my average is probably about $60,000 because when I started in public health, I was only $22 an hour. Wow. You are like the poster child for our National Millionaire Study. Thank you.

We found a lot of them, they didn't make six figures, and inheritance didn't cause them to become a millionaire, and you just consistently invested over a long period of time? Yes. Yes, I started the Roth. I wish I would have started in my 20s but i started the roth about 30 and then also put back in the taxable brokerage and then when i started with public employment they uh match at 10 percent so they take 10 percent of mine and match it at 10 so three 26 year old nurses are standing around the coffee pot and you walk up and they're saying no way a nurse can ever be a millionaire what do you tell those three oh i encourage this all the time in fact i refer them to your information but i talk to them all the time about putting back at least in a roth to start in a roth because i do

know a lot of the health care systems don't have very good programs necessarily. Public employment's a little different, but I encourage them to start a Roth IRA and max it out. That's what I have done. But basically, you're telling them they can do it. Oh, yes. Yes. I've even disclosed that I have built wealth that way, and they can do it, too, that my

house is paid for. They usually encourage to hear that. Sarah, you're amazing're amazing you're amazing you're an absolute amazing lady congratulations 54 years old 1.9 million average income through her working life of 60 000 only in the last two years did she even break six figures and she's got a 1.9 million dollar net worth oh to be fair 200 000 of the 1.9 was inherited after she was already a millionaire 79 of america's millionaires by the largest study of millionaires ever done and you can get that in the millionaires uh the baby steps millionaires book the study is in the back of the book the entire white paper on it you can unpack the details of for you that nerds if you're having

trouble sleeping um put me right to sleep i know know that. It's my study. So 79% inherited precisely zero. 5% inherited a small amount like $5,000. Not enough to make them millionaires. Another 5% inherited money after substantial money like her, after they were already millionaires. 5 and 5 and 79 would be called 89. That's 9 out of 10 of America's millionaires are not millionaires, according to stone-cold data, because of inheritance. called 89. That's 9 out of 10 of America's millionaires are not millionaires, according

to stone-cold data, because of inheritance. So when someone tells you the only way you're going to be wealthy is have a rich uncle, they're full of crap. It's simply not true. Don't let the lefties tell you this stuff. That's not true. It's a Baby Steps Millionaire's Theme Hour. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today. This is a Baby Steps Millionaire's Theme Hour. If you're a real millionaire with a net worth of greater than a million dollars what you own minus what you owe we want to talk to you i don't want your broke brother-in-law's opinion i want real millionaires as to how they really did it 888-825-5225 let's do a little mental exercise look ahead 90 days from now it's july you have a thousand dollars in the bank you paid off two of

your credit cards and you check out at the grocery without having a panic attack. You know how that would feel? Peaceful, financially peaceful, financial peace. Some of you have never had that in your entire life, but today is the day that you can take back control of your money. It starts in Financial Peace University. It's our nine-week course that's helped millions of people beat debt, build wealth, and become outrageously generous.

We're going to teach you everything about how to handle money step by step, so you don't have to worry about it anymore. The average student going through Financial Peace University has an $8,000 turnaround in 90 days. $5,300 in debt reduction, $ 2,700 in savings. That's the average total of 8,000. Not a bad return on your time. I could give you $8,000 in three months. Would you talk about it? We should talk about it. That means before summer break is over, you're going to feel different.

Go to Financial Peace University today at ramsaysolutions.com slash FPU and get signed up. You'll be amazed at how inexpensive it is. Get plugged into a group where people love you, encourage you, and hold you accountable, and that'll ensure that this works. Financial Peace University, RamseySolutions.com, slash FPU. David is in Milwaukee. Hi, David.

What is your net worth? Hey, Dave George. Thanks for taking my call. My net worth as of last night is $1,065,000. Look at you. I like it. Very good. And give me a little breakdown by category.

How's that made up? So cash is around $90,000. Retirement accounts with 401K and Roth IRAs around $190. Brokerage accounts with $50,000. And real estate's the big one here at $735,000. Very cool. Good for you. How old are you? I'm 32.

My wife is 30. Good for you. And how much of this $1.1 million did you inherit? Zero. All right. Zero, precisely. Okay, so you've been working 10 years or so what was your best working year household income and worst year uh when my wife and i were both working together we were probably probably in the 220 range i would say um at

her best year uh since then she's she's uh become a stay-at-home mom. She's been working at home, and we're probably around the 200 mark now, I would say. That's your worst year ever is 200? No, sorry, sorry. About 120, 120 on the low end. Okay, cool. What do you all do for a living? What do you do? I'm an electrical engineer.

Okay, very good. All right. And what was your GPA? Bachelor's was 3.8, 3.9. Master's like 3.5-ish, I want to say. Okay, good for you. Well done. Well done.

So you think this can be done today? If you've got somebody out there listening that's an engineer just coming out of school at 22 23 years old can they still become a millionaire in 10 years oh 100 100 i think as long as you have as long as you have a vision of what you're trying to accomplish and you can you can lay a goal in front of yourself and uh you know put together some simple steps and then just have discipline and on you know repeating those steps month after month, year after year, I think it's an inevitable fact, honestly. So I'm curious, David, because you're so young and people like to poo-poo on folks that are young who have built wealth because they just don't think it's possible for them. So what would you tell that person? Was it the paid for house? How intentional were you over

these 10 years to do this? Or did you just look up one day and go, oh my gosh, here we are? No, we were extremely intentional. And this started off in 2015 when I got out of school. I mean, in 2015, I had a net worth of negative $50,000. And the first thing was jumping into FPU. Jumped into FPU, paid off those student loans in the first 12 months of my career. And we started saving for our first house and paid cash for our first house right out of the gate. It was a duplex.

Two years later, we paid cash for another rental property. And now we've moved into a third place as well. So we've been really just slow and steady. Like Dave always says, you know, the slow and steady wins the race. Wow. The old get-rich-slow plan works, and here you are at 32. It didn't take you 30 years. Well, sometimes I hear all rich people are crooks.

How much of this did you steal? As far as I know, zero. Unless my CPA messed up or something, but zero as far as I something but uh well i just had to ask i want to make sure we get all the all the facts out here hey man i'm proud of you way to go congratulations very very well done jason and lexington what is your net worth hey dave it is 1.3 million good for you give me a little breakdown by category yeah it's about a third of it is in our personal property. A third of it is in retirement accounts, 401Ks, IRAs, and a third of it is in investment property. Okay, so real estate.

All right. And so good. Very good. How old are you? I'm 49 years old and my wife is 47. Excellent. Excellent. How much of this did you inherit?

Not a darn penny, unfortunately. What do you do for a living? I am in technology sales. So I actually worked for one of those big, large tech companies that had all the layoffs. And coincidentally enough, my commission check hit, I'm in sales, while I was laid off. So technically, we became millionaires while I was unemployed. That's impressive. I'll take it. I'll take it every time. What's your degree in?

It is in computer science. I was a developer for many years, started listening to you back in 2007, started looking for an opportunity to get a bigger shovel, so I moved over into sales. Ah, that's interesting. And what was your GPA in computer science? Oh, it was about a 3.2. Okay.

And what was your all's best working year since you've been working, household income, and worst working year, range? So this year will be our best year. It'll be somewhere around $700,000. It's a bit of an outlier. You know how sales go. Worst year, I'd have to go all the way back to when I was in the Army to have my absolute worst year but let's just go in the last 10 years about 180 000 okay all right so 700 700 000 and you got laid off exactly the best year i've ever had it's like laid me off every year wow that's so. I wonder what the correlation to that is.

We don't want to pay this guy $700,000. We're going to lay him off. Okay. But they had to pay the commission that was on the books, right? They did pay what was on the books. So I guess if there's an ethical way to fire people, they did it. Wow. Call it a severance check. And next year, they just won't have all those sales. Exactly. But i've already landed a new place it's a better place you know and the nice thing is when i got the email and yes i was fired over an email um i just looked at my wife that morning i was like well i guess

i'm taking some vacation that's what you can do when you got financial peace amen when you're 49 years old and you're worth 1.3 million and you don't have any debt. Way to go, man. Way to go. So, uh, tell the young techies out there, can this still be done or is all the opportunity in America gone? It absolutely can be done. And, you know, doing it the right way, doing it slow growth is always less painful is always better. You know, in the last 16 years, we've had lots of different economies.

We've had certainly different types of president and it's never affected me one bit. Keeping my head down, concentrating on what my wife and I can control within our sphere of influence and what we can affect has always been the right approach. In the last 25 years, which will put you down to 25 years old, what's the dumbest thing you did with money oh you know when we were really young when i was stationed in germany we bought a brand new car a 1994 uh dodge avenger we put 300 down on it went home and freaked out went back the next day and canceled it we did not get our 300 back so out of all the things you can do stupid with money 300 we'll take it was a well lesson learned yeah wow didn't have and just took the car. That's amazing.

Sweet car. I'm glad you didn't get it. Very cool. Very cool. Are you a reader or a TV person? Oh, I read. I try to read two books a month. Ah, okay. High correlation between people who build

wealth. They read books instead of watching TV. What, you're saying Love is Blind Season 4 will not help me build wealth? And I'm pretty sure neither will Tiger King. Dang it. But I could be wrong. You need a new strategy. I could be wrong.

I'm just helping you people out here with your inputs. Inputs matter. Wow. Way to go, man. Good job, Jason. This is a Baby Steps Millionaire theme hour. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today this is a baby steps millionaires theme hour where we're talking to real millionaires about how they really got there not your broke brother-in-law's opinion not somebody trolling on the internet these are actual humans that have

actually done it which is really probably a pretty good source of information james is with us in miami hi james how much is your net worth i'm sitting just shy of 1.1. I'm at $1,075,000. Perfect. Give me a little breakdown by category. All right. Well, about $450,000 is home equity. $255,000 is in my TSP. I've got $250,000 throughout Roth IRA, mutual funds, a couple of single stocks in HSA, about 80,000 in cash and 40,000 in paid off vehicles. Good for you. Cool. How old are you? I am 28. 28 year old millionaire. Look at you, man. Way to go. How much of this did you inherit? Zero. Zero. And what's your best working year and your worst working year income wise? The worst working year was back in 2015 when I started entering the workforce. I made about $50,000 that year.

Okay. And my best working year was last year. I made about $250,000. Cool. What do you do for a living? I'm an air traffic controller. Ah, okay. So was that a lot of overtime or what?

Yeah, it was mostly overtime. The whole pandemic, we just started going crazy with the overtime. I jumped up my salary by about $30,000 one year in 2021 by just taking a bunch of OT. And then in 2022, same thing, just a lot of overtime. Very cool. Very cool. What's your degree in? I actually don't have a degree.

Okay, cool. V's your degree in? I actually don't have a degree. Okay, cool. VOTEC or anything? I went to college for about two and a half years. It was a four-year program, and about a year and a half into it, the government changed their minds, which they always do, about how to hire people so you don't need a degree for that field anymore wow okay and your gpa in high school then was what uh high school i was pretty good student uh probably about a three five and about the same in college for those two and a half years good for you so

what do you attribute the fact that you're a millionaire at 28 years old. How did that happen? What do you call that? I think a lot of it is, I want to throw it back to my parents, how I was raised through that and how they instilled that work ethic in me. They both put in 60-plus hours a week, and my mom was a small business owner, and just seeing her hustle and grind was really a big driving force towards it. But they didn't give you any money. They just gave you an example. Correct. And also, I got to work in the business growing up,

so I got to start earning my own money from a young age. So what were the specific steps you took over the last seven, eight years? Were you doing 15% retirement? Did you wait and get a bigger down payment? What were the tactical pieces of this? Oh, I kind of messed up probably about two years into the job. I got a big pay raise when I started getting checked out and certified on positions. I took that pay raise and I got a brand new car. So that was one mistake there. But after that, I learned and I started investing all the other

pay raises after that. So you just lived on less than you made after that and went, I'm going to sock this money away in retirement and pay down the house and I'll get to millionaire status. Was it intentional to get there? Yes, it was very intentional. I always had the goal I wanted to be a millionaire by age 30. And you did it. And suddenly a couple years ago I saw The End in Sight

and was able to see a million dollar coming up on it. Yeah. Wow. Way to go, Rob. Excellent, excellent work. I'm sorry, James. Excellent work. Very well done.

Good, good, good job. Rob is in Atlanta. Rob, what's your net worth? Hi. My net worth is right about $4.2, $4.3 million. Very cool. Give me a little breakdown by category. Yeah, I've got $2 million in 401K, $1.3 about in just mutual funds and things like that,

about $800,000 in the house and the rest in just cash and a few other things. Good, good. Very cool. How old are you? I just turned 58. Good for you. And how much of this $4.2 million did you inherit? Basically zero. My mother-in-law passed away this last year, so we got $90,000 just in the last year. But you were already multi-millionaires.

Exactly, yeah. So what's your best working year income and your worst working year income? Probably my worst was in graduate school, probably $8,000 a year. And my best will probably be this year. I think my wife and I will probably make about $300,000 together. Good for you. What do you all do for a living? I work in research and development in a big consumer products company.

Okay, cool. What's your degree in? I have a master's in chemical engineering. Okay. Something you're using in R&D every day. Yeah, good for you. Kind of, yeah. I'm in management now.

Yeah, but, I mean, you know the formulas. What's your GPA? 3.2 undergrad and 3.9 graduate. Yeah. Way to go. Cool. So I think this is an underhand pitch since you're a master's degree chemical engineer. But are you a book reader or TV watcher?

I say I'm an information gatherer. I don't read a ton of books, to be honest, but I gather information from all over the place. I read, you know. Your field is somewhat like a medical field, so you're reading articles all the time. All the time, and just personal stuff, you know, car repair. I enjoy doing that kind of stuff. Anything where I can use my hands and learn how to do something, I enjoy. Yeah, but didn't see every particular episode of Downton Abbey.

No. No, I don't do that. Well, now he's got time to watch it. He's got millions. Now he can catch up. That's what we aspire to, right? I love it, brother. Well done.

So your advice to the 28-year-old version of you. Yeah, well, I think like everybody else, it's spend less than you make. It makes things a lot more comfortable. Another one that I haven't heard too much is I really don't like to pay somebody else to do something I can do. So I'm willing to work pretty hard to do things that other people might just pay somebody to do, and I really don't do much of that. You know, something I get, people sometimes criticize me on not asking, and I think it's a valid criticism.

Do you or your wife smoke? No, no, no. You know, we start asking that because I think there's a high probability they don't. Because, A, it's obviously a medical issue. B, it costs a lot. And I'll bet you we find a correlation. I've never asked it before. Yeah, it's an expensive habit.

Because it just costs a lot. And you go through a couple packs a day, it's a big deal. And yeah, so interesting. Very interesting. Hey, man, very cool. I'm proud of you. Thanks for the call. We appreciate you calling in.

It's a baby steps millionaires theme hour now the mythology if you listen to the internet trolls the reddit fools the uh tic-tac people whatever they are uh or your broke brother-in-law who votes the wrong way they're going to tell you that wealthy people all inherited their wealth we've already told you 89 percent did not become millionaires stone cold research because of inherited wealth we can prove it to you you disagree with that you're what's known as wrong this is data okay the law of gravity is data it works every time it's called facts the uh the vast majority of wealthy people are crooks george have you heard that i've heard that

we got to be evil to make money dave which is very interesting because if you own a uh restaurant and you rip people off people don't come back and they tell people to stay away if you own a car repair place and you rip people off they don't come back and they tell people to stay away i'm confused how the crooks prosper over the long haul now Now, they might prosper that week, but it's very difficult to become wealthy. It's easier to become wealthy with actual high integrity because your customers will come back. Because you can't keep your job if you lie and steal and all that. And they're all famous entertainers.

They're NFL athletes. They're country music stars. They're rock stars. I didn't get a single call from them today.ers. They're NFL athletes. They're country music stars. They're rock stars. I didn't get a single call from them today. Yeah. They're just engineers. I haven't talked to one of those. Salespeople.

Nurses. The truth is the data tells us that it's less than 2% of millionaires are celebrity types. Almost none of them are celebrity types. And celebrity types have a horrible reputation of handling money well by the way as a general rule some some do a good job but but the reputation is bad to say the least this is a baby steps millionaires theme hour Our Scripture of the Day, Proverbs 4, 25 and 26. Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.

Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. George Lucas says you simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead. This is a Baby Steps Millionaires theme hour. We're talking to real millionaires. If you want to know more on this subject, the book number one bestseller, this is my eighth number one bestseller, is called Baby Steps Millionaires. And it came out about 14 months ago.

And it's stories of real millionaires that really did this stuff. And it's data from the actual millionaire study. The study is published as an appendix in the back. And we go through exactly how people walk this process out and exactly how over 30 years I've observed them doing it. And we defeat all of the lies that the hope stealers put out. And the hope stealers are out there. They were trained by Karl Marx in the college classroom. And it's just not true that you're stuck or that America is so broken that you can't win.

Yes, there's lots of problems. Yes, there's lots of obstacles. If being successful was easy, no one would care about being successful. Everyone would get a participation trophy, and we'd call it a day, and we'd call it communism. But there's a real way that real people get up, leave the cave, kill something, and drag it home, and they become real millionaires. And no, they did not inherit their money,

and no, they're not crooks, and no, they're not rich people. And oh, by the way, if you're so stupid that you think a house, George was telling me this at the break, that you're so stupid that you think a house, George was telling me this at the break, that a paid-for house does not count in your net worth, then you don't understand basic accounting. And they don't teach that on TikTok. Basic accounting, if you take accounting 101,

they're going to teach you what a net worth is, a balance sheet. And a balance sheet net worth is your assets minus your liabilities. It's very simple and very clean. And your assets are anything. Cars count. You have $100,000 in cars. That counts towards your net worth. Now, I hope to God it's not much of your net worth, but it counts as part of your net worth. You know, if you own whatever, just, you know, if you want to say someone's a cash millionaire or a liquid millionaire, that's a different definition. That would be a million dollars cash or liquid assets, mutual funds that you could get out, not in a retirement account, but your retirement accounts, your hard assets, mutual funds that you could get out, not in a retirement account, but your retirement accounts, your hard assets, even valuable personal items.

If you had a bunch of collectible art, that counts in your net worth. I don't recommend it in terms of a high percentage of your net worth, but it counts. And if you don't think so so you're what's known as wrong so really you have to start dealing with facts here and what doesn't count why do you want why do you want it to be impossible well you whiners why do they want it to be impossible someone hurt them and they just can't get over it maybe it it was a breakup. Maybe it was some childhood trauma. I don't know. But they're in the YouTube comments, Dave, and I got to deal with them.

Someone's got to set them straight. Well, because you actually look at the YouTube comments. That's the difference. Well, I just can't help see idiots just get to be free. Oh, you have to deal with them. The problem is, I think it was a Mark Twain quote, if you start a fight with an idiot, they'll drag you down, and onlookers can't tell the difference. Don't argue with a pig.

Don't get in the mud with a pig because nobody can tell which is which. That's the thing. Our goal here, we want to prove to you that you can win.

It's that simple. It's not Pollyanna. It's not fake. If it goes against your little victim mentality, well, good. That's what we're trying to do is break your little victim mentality well good that's what we're trying to do is break your little victim mentality amy's in dallas what's your net worth amy 2.2 million 2.2 million dollars way to go give me a little breakdown on that

you're breaking up on us you're breaking up we need a new phone oh i'm sorry i'm sorry there we go maybe i'll send some of it on that. You got a deal on the phone. $1 million in retirement, which is $401K in Roth IRAs, $400K, I'm guessing, on the house, $700K in brokerage accounts and company stock, and then $100K in cash. And I do apologize, Dave. I did not incorporate things with wheels and motors. That's okay.

Because they go down in value. That's okay. It's not the other way around. I'm not yelling at you for that. I'm yelling at people who say that George's house, as soon as a million-dollar net worth doesn't count, because he's got about a $700,000 paid-for house, and he's 32 years old. So, of course, it counts.

That's just dumb. So, anyway, how old are you? I'm 34, and my husband will be 33 this year. Excellent, excellent. How much of this did you inherit? I think about 50K my husband did when his grandfather passed away, but that was well after we were already millionaires. Okay, we rest our case.

All right, cool. And what do you guys do for a living? We met in college, and we were both studying electrical engineering. He won the lottery. I was the only female in class. Yeah, we double-dipped on the electrical engineering. What was your GPA? Mine was 3.3.

His was 3.1. Very cool. What do you tell people if they want to be a millionaire by 34 years old? Honestly, God's money that you are entrusted to manage, and the biggest thing in your Bible verse today was perfect. Be okay with delayed gratification. Understand the path, and it's okay that you're not going to have the flashy cars right now because you're going to have it later.

Live like no one else so later you can live and give like no one else. Yes, sir. Yeah, in the Bible verse, another one else, so later you can live and give like no one else. Yes, sir. Yeah, in the Bible verse, another one is, no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but it yields the harvest of righteousness. Amy, you're amazing. Congratulations. So, George, we had a 1.9, a 1.1, a 1.3, a 1.1, a 4.2, and a 2. two million dollar net worth today 54 years old 32 49 28 54 or 58 and 34 years old none over 60 and one under 30 and two in their 30s is a young crowd today average gpa

3.4 3.8 3.2 3.5 3.2 3.3 so they always think the other one of the other mythologies is you have to be unusually brilliant to be wealthy and uh you can't be unusually dumb that the 1.6 doesn't show up okay if you played beer pong in college you're probably not gonna show up here uh if that was your graduate degree is in beer pong um but the uh most of the time the average millionaire's net worth is a little over three mine was a little under three 2.97 to be precise and i'm very bitter about that three one hundred just bump it round it up three one hundredths of a point and i missed it yeah there you go but uh so i graduated thank you lordy you know that's what that means so there you go but anyway but yeah that's the average millionaire is right around that three mark.

Very few of them are certified geniuses, but very few of them are dumb. They have a lot of them are engineers. Number one, number one category of careers, by the way, is engineers. Number two is accountant. Number three is teacher. Number four is business. Number five is attorney. Number six is medical.

So medical didn't even make doctors didn't even make the top five. Wow. So, and we had them all here today. We had engineers, tech sales, air traffic controller, R&D, nurse. See there, you see. Yeah. It's represented. Lots of engineers, chemical engineer, electrical engineer, electrical engineer.

The first call, 54-year- 54 year old nurse single had been in public nursing her whole life never made over a hundred thousand until last year year before last year so uh one third of millionaires never make over a hundred thousand in their life one third of them in a study so why do we do all this because we want to tell you you can do it it's possible and the mix is interesting too there's nothing real sexy in this mix it's possible. And the mix is interesting too. There's nothing real sexy in this mix. It's just I paid down my house, got it paid for, I put money in my 401K, I've got a brokerage account with some mutual funds in it,

and I've got cash. There was not an Elon Musk or a Bill Gates on the list. I was waiting for something crazy, but there wasn't much in there. It's kind of boring, but it just works. What's not boring is having financial peace and retiring when you want to. Amen. Amen. There we go.

So, hey, this is how this stuff works, boys and girls. It's slow and steady wins the race, and we invite you to join the race. Congratulations, America. Check out Baby Steps Millionaires. Check out Financial Peace University. We'll get you going. It's what we do here. Good show, George.

Good times. Thank you. Well done. Well done. That puts us out in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there is ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, George Campbell here. If you love the show and you want a deeper dive on your money journey,

we've got a weekly newsletter that gives you helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way. Just go to ramsesolutions.com today to sign up for the newsletter. Again, that's ramsesolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.